Yenidze
The Yenidze in Dresden was built as a cigarette factory and completed in 1909 in the style of a mosque, with a glass dome and a chimney disguised as a minaret.
Bybbisch94, Christian Gebhardt Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0
What it is
Its full name was “Orientalische Tabak- und Cigarettenfabrik Yenidze”.
The owner says the building is not a strict copy of a real mosque: its architecture combines Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) with Moorish elements. A tomb in Cairo served as a model for the building.
It stands on the eastern edge of the Friedrichstadt district, at Weißeritzstraße 3, 01067 Dresden.
History
The factory owner Hugo Zietz had the Yenidze built, and the architect was Martin Hammitzsch. It is named after a tobacco-growing area in what was then the Ottoman Empire. The building was completed in 1909.
The air raids on Dresden in February 1945 damaged the Yenidze. Cigarette production resumed in 1947 and continued until 1953. After that the building served the GDR's state tobacco trading company, the VEB Tabakkontor, as a store and office.
The building was restored in the 1990s and reopened as an office building.
The dome
The dome is 20 metres high and glazed in coloured glass. A gold crown on its tip refers to Zietz's title of Saxon royal court supplier.